|
Willen Vandeveld |
Honda ST1300 |
Marty Thompson |
|
|
Misho Zrakic |
Honda CBR1000 |
Clifford Peters |
|
|
Tim Emons |
Honda CBR1000 |
Fred Menz |
|
|
Ian Payne (rear) |
Honda CBR1000 |
Tony Stegmar |
Suzuki GSXR1300 |
|
Paul Southwell |
Honda CBR1000 |
Danny Hawker |
Suzuki GSXR1000 |
|
Dave Ward |
Honda CBR1000 |
Rob Jones |
Suzuki GSXR1000 |
|
Ben Warden |
Honda CBR954 |
Chris Pointon |
Suzuki GSXR1000 |
|
Ern Reeders |
Honda CBR954 |
Trevor Harris |
Yamaha YZF1000 |
|
Ron Johnston |
Honda VFR800 |
Damian Jones (2nd ride) |
Yamaha R1 |
|
Peter Fisher |
Honda VFR800 |
Geoff Jones |
Yamaha R1 |
|
Ha Du |
Honda CBR600 |
Brett Richards (1st ride) |
Yamaha R1 |
|
Damien Denny |
Honda CBR600 Hornet |
Pina Garasi |
Yamaha R6 |
|
Ivan Radywonik |
KTM 990 |
Robert Langer (leader) |
BMW R1150GS |
|
Tony Raditsis |
Aprilia Mille |
|
27 bikes, 27 people |
All the President’s men and twenty faithful followers came on this wonderful winter’s day to be fabulously led far and away by the elusive Rob Langer. It was great to see him after an absence from riding with the Club. I believe he has been busy making contact with ‘dirt’ with his off-road bike (WA trip …Ed.) and thereafter was confined to using two legs for transport on the recommendation of a member of the police force who felt he was travelling a wee bit too fast on two wheels.
Well Rob, what can I say? You sure know how to satisfy a rider’s hunger – twisties, sweepers, long and very isolated country roads – some of which I went on for the first time and which gave me a very “yee-hah” feeling – full throttle for what seemed liked endless kilometres. At one stage, I was travelling for so long on my own I was sure I had become separated and lost from the group and thought philosophically to myself “the next sign I see which points to Melbourne – then that’s where I’ll go”. But all was well when I came to the next corner marker after what felt like 50 kilometres further on.
After lunch at Euroa, I was riding rather swiftly through some very isolated narrow country road when I had a sudden “Oh Gees” moment: I had to brake hard for a herd of cattle running randomly to and fro across the road. Couldn’t help wondering why the owner just stood there watching his cows running amok instead of giving us a little warning when it was quite obvious that there was a whole bunch of us riding through and a good chance we could have a collision. What’s happened to using kelpies? I went very slowly trying to predict which cow was going to run left and which was going to run right. When there was a quiet moment of bovine indecision, I made a quick dash.
Not such a good day for the two Damien’s who came for the ride. Damian Jones, Yamaha R1, ended up going home at Euroa when his bike persisted in running on three cylinders (It ended up being a problem with valve clearance; luckily his bike is still under warranty and Yamaha will cover it) – such a shame as the roads only got better from Euroa. I’m sure he’ll be back as he’s had fun riding with our club on a few rides.
Damien Denny, Hornet 600, was on his second ride and having a wonderful time. Unfortunately he took a corner a little too fast and came off – his bike damaged but rideable. In Ben’s damage-description scale, it was classified as “minor cosmetic”. As usual, the crashee was subjected to the obligatory post-crash photograph... welcome to the MSR Club, Damian, where nothing is sacred or secret.
After lunch, while filling up with petrol at Euroa, I see Marty Thompson circling his bike, shaking his head in disbelief while pointing to his wafer-thin front brake-pads, calling on his fellow-riders as witnesses to this phenomena. Hmmm... executive decision made - home time. Bye Marty… come back soon; we miss you. The third enforced retiree; ah well, at least we got a taste of him for most of the day… just enough to keep us hanging out for his next appearance.
And so the ride went on, and on, and on with lots of fantastic roads – such a good fix was had such that at the end of the ride at Kinglake I didn’t need to munch on my chocolate bar; instead I offered it to Misho and Dave Ward who arrived much, much later than me… never heard of before – but then again I was possessed by the magic of the sweepers and they were preoccupied by painful thoughts of licence suspension.
Pina
Garasi